No-Fail Banana Swirl

Have I mentioned how much I…ahem, I mean, my toddler, loves Daniel Tiger? As I described in my Rainbow Heart Pizza recipe, we particularly love that the show so often works in opportunities for Daniel to try new foods, cook with his family and participate in family meals.

We especially enjoy the episode “Daniel Tries a New Food,” in which Daniel has his bestie Miss Elaina over for dinner and they try Veggie Spaghetti and Banana Swirl. I am pretty sure the producers selected these foods because they are fairly non-threatening to most toddlers. Who doesn’t like spaghetti and bananas?

We recently had company over ourselves so we decided to imitate art and whip up some Banana Swirl of our own. Here’s the thing about making Banana Swirl, though. Although the dish looks simple to make, it is actually pretty easy to screw up! And that can turn out to be a major #fail when you’ve got an enthusiastic toddler who’s really excited to make it with you and dig in.

In the episode, Mom Tiger makes the dish in a blender, so I figured my high-speed Blendtec would be right for the job. Not so! We ended up adding milk to get everything to blend, which took longer than I thought and resulted in a bit of a melty mess. Still tasty, but not really “we have company over” quality, in my opinion.

So I froze even more bananas, did a little online research and determined the following Very Best Practices for making Banana Swirl (a.k.a. how to not disappoint your toddler…)

Use a food processor. Pfft to you, Mom Tiger! I like you in every other respect, but this equipment choice was a major contributor to our dessert fail. There’s something about a food processor that really helps the bananas blend together, aerate and get creamy.

Use semi-frozen bananas. They should be almost frozen, but not rock hard. If they bend to a little pressure from your finger, you’re good. Try 30 seconds in the microwave if you think you’ve let your bananas freeze for too long.

Use very ripe bananas. ‘Nuf said! Riper bananas are sweeter. I keep a lidded container in my freezer for any bananas that look like they’re not going to make it much longer, then draw on them for Banana Swirl, smoothies and my Banana Oat Blender Muffins.

After blending, return the mixture to the freezer. Mom Tiger got it right here, at least. After blending, dish out individual servings and freeze them for about an hour. This helps the mixture firm up and have more of an ice cream-like texture.

And because I’m smitten, here is a photo of my 9-month-old enjoying some Swirl. She was sitting happily at the counter while I experimented with the food processor method, but once she saw me give the banana mixture a taste and realized there was something edible in there, she wanted in on the sweet deal! Because we’re doing Baby Led Weaning, she was of the mentality that she could spoon-feed the dish to herself. It sorta worked (read: not really…)

And of course the MIX INS and the TOPPINGS! The sky is the limit here. We topped ours with crunchy star sprinkles and mini chocolate chips. The first time we made it we mixed in chocolate peanut butter powder. Other possibilities include:

Diana K. Rice, RD

The Baby Steps Dietitian

Hi, I'm Diana. Registered dietitian and mom to a toddler and a newborn. Family nutrition is my passion but balancing good health on top of the chaos new parenthood brings is tough stuff! Join me as I navigate feeding myself and my family, one baby step at a time.